


vacation mishaps (ft. an angry toilet)

by blurbluefrog (ForestFish)



Category: Day6 (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Barbecue, Beaches, Crack Treated Seriously, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Like lots of shit jokes, Mountains, Not Beta Read, Or not, Rated for cussing, Slice of Life, Sunrises, Team Bonding, Twitter nonsense, Vacation, Weird Plot Shit, ah there are not ships just some skinship and stuff but really, and that's all i think watch me fleeing, but not of the members, but they're a day6 anyway, i would have tagged it as general but the language and the themes wouldn't let me, mentions of abuse, no ships, poop jokes, there's some of it too, vent fic or sth also self-indulgent lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-04 22:29:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15156995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForestFish/pseuds/blurbluefrog
Summary: "In the mountains, you see, especially when there are very little people around you, and the highways are more like faraways because there are none in a 20km radius, you expect to be woken up by what? Chirping little birdies. The sound of the morning breeze. The pleasant rustling buzz of leaves rubbing against each other softly. What you most certainly don’t expect to be woken up by is panicked screaming or the very clear and very unnerving sound of something crashing followed by the mysterious sound of something liquid gushing out."





	vacation mishaps (ft. an angry toilet)

**Author's Note:**

> hello, it's late and i should have written a 3k word essay instead of writing this shite but i couldnt get myself to do it and [ someone ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/satsuki19/pseuds/SatsukiLevin) enabled me and said i should write a fic about a certain weird event lmfao i know it was supposed to be a drabble and i wanted it to be. i and only i am to blame for how long this crap got. im sorry abt being such a damn rambler ughhh and it's barely proofread so please forgive any mistakes and typos and general weird shit bc i aint gonna reread it, otherwise i just won't post it lmao it's a mess, basically they go on vacation to some shady house that belongs to wonpi'ls grandma and sungjin is right. it's an au in my mind but i guess u could say it fits with the canon or sth fkhgdfkjhgd
> 
> like i wrote in the tags, the rating is for language and some more angsty themes and there are no ships. it's also there that it's self-indulgent and kind of a vent fic but.... well, im not gonna say what's inspired by real events and what's not, i'll just say that some things may have been tweaked to fit the characters and to make it less personal. basically this is mostly humour but then then there's a side of angst that provides for some bonding moments and then park jinyoung from got7 appears bc why wouldn't he fdjgkhdkjfghfkjdghd anyway, uh, this is messy as my usual shite and as usual i write a lot when im the highest and bc im aware of that, i can't reread again bc like i said, if i do, i won't post it and i wanna post it for the beautiful girl who indulged me into writing it and put me in a good mood when i wasn't <3 
> 
> i hope that if u decide to give this a go, u enjoy it some. by e

 

* * *

 

 

You know, stepping out of your comfort zone is very nice and dandy until it ends up in disaster. Or maybe not disaster, but something wacky.

(Was that the point of stepping out of one’s comfort zone? Well, anyway.)

Yeah, sure, it’s solid advice to tell someone to ‘just step out of their comfort zone’ when that someone is one of those people that just won’t do anything new because they’re scared of eventual negative outcomes. Jae was kind of one of those people, but he could do it, especially if he didn’t have to do it alone. Brian was kind of like that too, but he really just went and did it, if he felt like it, even if it felt like a risky thing in hindsight. Wonpil wasn’t scared at all.

(Which wasn’t surprising considering that the idea in question had come from him in the first place.)

Dowoon was a little concerned and he meekly expressed his thoughts only to have Wonpil firmly reassure him that everything was under control, leading him into eventually giving in.

(Come on, give the boy a break, he just thought a lot and he didn’t want things to go wrong. Jae didn’t blame him, honestly. That idea had literally all the ingredients to be a complete disaster. Even a pinch of ‘the Gods have spoken through a lightbulb burning out the moment the idea was suggested’.

Jae was a little concerned but at the same time... he kind of felt like they should do it.)

Sungjin, like his bandmates, also wasn’t _exactly_ scared of stepping out of his comfort zone. He just thought it was kind of a wild idea. Wonpil was fully convinced that he was just making excuses though, despite his very level-headed attempts at convincing his roommate that that wasn’t the case. He just wanted them to have their vacation at the beach.

You see, they had a whole week off, courtesy of JYPE for their hard-work. A well-deserved, hard-earned week off. The company would be happy to get them a small flat somewhere by the coast, too. Sungjin had even asked and they’d agreed to it. Wonpil had different plans, though, and he was damn stubborn about them.

“But, hyung” he pleaded to Sungjin kneeling in front of him as he was sitting on the couch zapping through the channels on the TV without paying attention to any of them. He was their leader, the one who had the last word, despite that being a democracy and everyone having a say in their collective decisions. Jae was sitting on the floor with Dowoon and Brian eating chips, crunchily but quietly “it’ll be nice! Have you ever seen the sun rising between the mountains!?” He was doing his puppy eyes and Sungjin was very clearly trying not to lose his cool and be mean to him.

“No, I haven’t but, please, Wonpilie, think about it” he said evenly, sighing a little and looking over at his pleading eyes. Wrong decision. He was soft as butter and that tiny fool just looked so damn eager “no, don’t look at me like that, okay, listen to me” he turned off the TV and threw the remote onto the couch beside him looking down at him “that’s not, it’s kind of…”

“It’s not away from civilisation!” Wonpil quickly said, repeated really, he’d said that right away when he’d suggested his magnificent idea “The nearest house is, uh, like, 1km away, no more than that, and there are stores just down the steet!” He promised and Sungjin pursed his lips, silently staring at his face before looking over at the others who had already given their neutral opinions.

They liked the idea of a couple days by the coast, with the waves hitting the coast lulling them to sleep and waking up with the sun rising bright and warm from the ocean but they wouldn’t be averse to trying some place they’d never been to. The sun rose everywhere anyway, yeah? Maybe it’d be nice to see the sun rising in some place near the mountains too, who knew? Try something new? Yeah…

So, it was all in Sungjin’s hands, since they were all in the neutral side, calmly sharing their goddamn chips.

“But don’t you like the sea?” Sungjin asked almost in a similar tone, pleading, but he was good at emotional singing, not bargaining with stubborn kids like Wonpil.

“Hyung, it’ll be fun, we can even, like, explore the area and” Wonpil’s face lit up in a grin “have some barbecue outside! You can’t do that in the city!”

“I like barbecue.” Brian said aloud with a small smile and Jae snorted, glancing at him. Dowoon lowered his eyes. That single sentence was enough for Wonpil to know he’d won, and Sungjin dreadfully waved goodbye to his small dream of a couple days by the sea. He sighed deeply and clicked his tongue before shrugging.

“Well, I guess we’ll go with that, then. If you all agree.” He said with huff and a snort, standing up “Time to pack up, we’re going to the mountains to, have barbecue and, uh, see the sun rising between the mountains. Yeah.”

Wonpil was over the moon and he hopped up looking like he’d just won the lottery.

* * *

 

 

They spent two days with their families. Jae and Brian had visited their respective relatives too. After that, off they went to Incheon to ( _hopefully_ ) enjoy the rest of their vacation near the mountains..

See, the reason why Wonpil was adamant about the idea of the mountains was because the place they’d be staying at, the house, belonged to his family. It was in Incheon, the province he was originally from, and it was near Manisan, a small mountain range in the most rural part of the province. It was basically away from the centre and anything technological. No sea in sight even though the sea was right there, and they even passed in front of it on their way to their destination. Sungjin sighed longingly at it before focusing on the road again.

“Hyung, it’ll be fun!” Wonpil kept saying. Sungjin was driving the mini-van they’d borrowed from the company. Brian had taken shotgun and the other three had sat in the back. Wonpil had sat right behind the driver and he kept trying to convince him that it was _a promising_ idea “It’s a really lovely place and, and the mountains are really nice, we can even go hiking!” He looked at his bandmates, none of whom were particularly athletic.

Jae snorted.

“Hiking.”

“Hiking is fun. I did it once when I was a kid!”

“Wonpilie, we get it” Brian said mildly looking back at Wonpil who sighed a little and sat back “I’m sure we’ll all have a lot of fun even though we’re, uh, going into the big nowhere to some house…”

“It’s just for five days.” Wonpil was kind of sulking now and he sighed, rolling down the window on his side (all the others were already rolled down, but he’d been too busy trying to make Sungjin see that it was indeed a nice plan. Sungjin had remained quiet for most of the trip. The radio was on and there was a Twice song playing, which eased the mood but Wonpil was very clearly feeling guilty.

Jae had sat by the other window and Dowoon was between them, but Jae reached his hand and patted Wonpil’s knee and chuckled as he turned his small pout to him.

“Come on, don’t be like that. Besides” he said with a snort “I think they were happy that they, like, didn’t have to pay for anything else but the car and the food since, you know” he gestured towards him “it’s your house, so no rent or whatever.”

“And we can have barbecue!” Dowoon quipped with a smile looking at Wonpil who smiled back just a little but was still clearly feeling upset because Sungjin was upset “And see the sun rising between the mountains!”

“Okay, fine” Sungjin finally spoke and he chuckled a little “I hate to see you with that, damn, I’m really lack fibre as a leader” he mumbled with a snort, but everyone heard him, and everyone laughed a little (“You don’t, hyung.” Brian reassured, patting his shoulder) “it’s fine that we’re, well, this whole thing. I also like the mountains and, and the sun rises everywhere…” it was like he was repeating that to himself “so we can, yeah, it’s a good plan too. Okay.”

“Now _that”_ Jae said loudly and pointed emphatically at him drawing all the attention to himself “is a very good example of someone giving in” his friends laughed at how anticlimactic it’d been “but well, let’s see what comes out of this.”

“Yep.” Brian said with a grin “I’ve never seen the sun rise in the mountains… I bet we could write a whole song about it.”

That remark prompted more laughter and overall the mood was lifted, and the rest of the trip went smoother and with a lot more chatting.

* * *

 

 

It was a tiny house. Like, _very_ tiny. It had two bedrooms, one tiny kitchen and one tiny bathroom. The balcony was great though, it had a beautiful panoramic view to the mountains. There was also a tiny living room with a fire place that was so full of burnt wood and ashes it was clear that it hadn’t been cleaned in at least,

“10 years?” Wonpil said in a small voice when Brian asked for how long the house had been uninhabited. Brian nodded, and Jae raised his eyebrows, nodding too.

(Yeah, you could actually see his eyebrows because he’d put on a cap backwards and his whole forehead was exposed. He was also wearing his glasses because vacation meant comfort. Fashion went right out of the window.)

“Sounds like we’re up for some” he sniffed the dusty, mould-smelling air and sneezed dramatically before grinning “some really wholesome allergies!”

Jae wasn’t the only one sneezing, but he was the one sneezing the most. That house, Wonpil told them as they opened all the windows all the way and pulled back the decayed yellowed curtains, belonged to his grandma. She’d lived there with his dad and auntie before getting some more money and getting a better house. The furniture they didn’t want had stayed there and that meant a bunch of old fashioned hideous pieces of furniture and an old dusty, incredibly ugly, brown couch that came in pieces.

“I’d never seen a couch like this. The pieces are not attached?” Dowoon asked in awe, pulling them apart and gasping at finding out that they were indeed not attached. It was a whole couch, fit for four people with four individual pieces that came off when you pulled them. There was an armchair in the same colour. The best seat, but also ugly.

“At least we have seats for everyone!” Jae declared opening his arms with a merry grin despite his puffy, teary eyes and shortness of breath.

The silence that settled was only broken by what sounded awfully like a bee.

“There’s a bee.” Brian muttered “Nobody move.”

Nobody did, and the insect entered the room through the window.

It was not a bee.

“IT’S A WASP!” Sungjin yelled and never in their lives the four other members of Day6 had never seen someone reach down, pull off a sneaker and fearlessly face a wasp. Dowoon stood in the living room with him and the others just ran out and onto the balcony. Dowoon had also pulled his sneaker off and the three others watched as they battled the gruesome insect. Dowoon was the one who got it, smashing it mercilessly against a wall and holding the sneaker there, twisting it a little to make sure.

“He’s making sure it’s really dead…” Jae whispered in awe “holy shit…”

The dead insect had been crushed and was currently stuck nastily to the wall.

“Decoration.” Brian chuckled with a sigh and Jae lost it as the three of them made their way back in to meet their fearless Busan friends. The house had some decoration left, but it was also incredibly horrid. Those paintings seemed like they’d been painted by rabbit with rabbis or acquired from some charity fair in which case they were to be forgiven.

(One them was literally just splattered paint on what seemed to have been _an attempt_ at drawing a tree. Maybe it was some piece of Modern Art and they were missing the whole point of the work. They were musicians not painters or whatever anyway.)

“There are three beds.” Sungjin declared after they’d inspected the whole house and opened all the windows (there weren’t very many anyway) and cupboards. There was a king-sized bed and two queens.

“Someone can take the couch.” Brian suggested.

“I’m not taking the couch.” Dowoon immediately stated “I, I don’t trust it.”

That was the same man who’d just crushed a wasp against a wall without any signs of fear. Jae shook his head and sighed.

“Look, we can just share the king-sized” he said “we’re skinny enough.”

“I’m not that skinny though.” Brian snorted.

Jae ignored Brian’s comment for the sake of proceeding with his train of thought.

“Anyway, it’ll be like back at the dorms” he declared. He gestured towards Wonpil and Sungjin “You take the queens and Bri, Dowoonie and me share the other bed.”

Sungjin was pleased with the idea and nodded and Wonpil looked at him and nodded as well. They got the best end of it anyway.

“Will we all fit though?” Brian insisted with a snort and Jae finally looked at him with a very disgruntled look on his face and reached his hand to pat his stomach which wasn’t a six pack but was a soft kind of flat. Brian chortled at the gesture.

“You’re fine, bro. Really _fine_. You’re literally a walking threat to both women _and_ men alike” he said dramatically and in English, and everyone laughed because that was MC Jae speaking and it was funny even if some words got lost for the three non-fluent members “you’re not called Mr. Steal-Your-Fans for nothing. You’re _the_ bias wrecker. _Own it_.” He said the last bit emphatically.

“Oh, Jae hyungnim, you spoil me rotten with praise.” Brian grinned playing along and the others laughed harder as Jae reached his hand to pat the top of Brian’s head which made him close his eyes and smile but then the gag had to stop, as they had more pressing matters to take care of, such as making the house inhabitable.

The barbecue bit was true. There was an old barbecue grill outside the house At least Wonpil had been right about there being houses and stuff nearby. He went there with Sungjin on the van and returned with a bunch of cleaning supplies and food. Loads of meat because that goddamn barbecue was happening and they all would see that it happened. Especially Sungjin who’d been talked into swapping a Beach Vacation for a Mountain Vacation in a house that hadn’t been touched in 10 years and meant that they’d have 4 more days off instead of five, since the first day would be just cleaning. And, well, in short, they spent the first day of their vacation dusting, mopping, and sweeping the floors. Jae had been spared the inside duties, since he was practically suffocating to death with all the dust and was in charge of making the grill usable. When they were finally done it was way past 8pm and they were dead tired.

“I’ll grill the meat.” Jae offered promptly, seeing his bandmates completely exhausted sitting on the porch of the house, all drenched in sweat and smelling heavily like cleaning supplies.

“The shower works?” Jae asked and he saw Sungjin nod.

“The plumbing seems to be decent and” he yawned which naturally prompted everyone to yawn as well and then chuckle “yeah, we got a bottle of butane gas down there” he pointed in the street’s general direction “the fridge is old but it’s working and, well, the stove is shit.” He cussed, and his friends laughed “But I guess we can cook something on it, if we need to come to that. We’re good in terms of electricity too, as you can see.” He pointed back with his thumb at the lights over the porch. They’d had to replace the lightbulbs. Wonpil had explained to him that the reason why everything was still functioning was because that was supposed to be his grandma’s vacation house now and she kept paying the bills. The last time it’d been used though, as he’d meekly informed them when they got there that morning, had been 10 years before that. There was just no way all the lights would still be working.

“We got a bunch of microwaveable food and instanoodles.” Wonpil grinned and everyone laughed again.

“It’ll be just like home then.” More laughter “We just need some music” he grinned glancing at his bandmates “go on, ya nerds, are you musicians or what? We’re out here practically camping with a bonfire and I haven’t seen a single guitar out. You’ll play while I cook. Go on.”

Nobody questioned it and they were all happy to comply despite how tired they were. Dowoon had brought the Djembe and of course the guitarists had brought their guitars. Wonpil had nothing but his vocals though, but that was fine. _Perfect_ , really. The bass had stayed home as well.

So, they played while Jae took care of the barbecue, and tried to get them on camera at the same time by leaning his filming phone against a can of beer. He was waiting for the fire to become embers, and for the embers to become cool enough to grill and not crisp the meat while his beautiful band played, and he just felt very well in general. The sound echoed softly through the otherwise quiet night, with only the buzzing of some cicadas as backup vocals. Jae sang some, too, as he worked, and they had no public except one another and that was fine. That really was fine. They smiled and sang for one another, lightly nudging each other’s arms purposefully and prompting some chuckles in the middle of verses. They started with their own songs, of course, before going for some from their seniors at JYPE and then some of the popular ones from the big groups, who would probably never have that kind of acoustic rendition of their songs. They sang EXO’s ‘Sing for You’ and BTS’s ‘The Truth Untold’. Maybe coming up to the mountains hadn’t been _that_ bad an idea after all.

They’d gotten a plastic table they’d found in the garage (Yes, because there was a garage in that tiny house. It was down by a place where they’d found some pieces of rotting wood and it was full of assorted junk.) Jae started seasoning the meat after some seven songs. The embers were perfect by then.

(What? He was practically a barbecue professional. He was a man full of hidden talents, mind you.)

They kept singing as the meat grilled and Jae forked it onto a platter (that had been thoroughly washed before being used since it’d been found under the sink which was infested with Spiders, that had all met a similar end to their winged counterpart in the living room, save for the ones that had managed to scuttle away. Day6 were just finishing yet another cover from their seniors (GOT7’s ‘Never Ever’) when Jae declared proudly that they could take a seat around their beautiful plastic table and bring out the drinks from the fridge because dinner was served.

“Oh my God” Sungjin said wide-eyed and without hiding his surprise “this is delicious!”

Everyone agreed and praised Jae’s work seeing their oldest brother swell with pride as he chewed on some meat himself.

“Told you” he said with his mouth full “I’m practically” he swallowed and grinned “a professional. Not even Gordon Ramsay hyungnim would be able to complain about this. In fact” he said, fishing out his phone and making his bandmates laugh and roll their eyes as he stood up and turned the flash on to get a good view of the food before getting everyone to pose and earning a couple of grunts because they were barefaced and drenched in sweat which would be visible in the picture (Jae talked them into it, saying that the fans liked the natural look and it would show another side of them). He then got a close of their feast.

He posted the pics on twitter with the captcha,

 _@GordonRamsay please rate my food, hyungnim [praying emoji]_ #barbecueprofessional #DAY6Vacation #nofilter #allnaturalbeauty

He had the notes off, but he’d turn them on a while later to reply to a couple comments and hopefully Ramsay hyungnim himself, if their fandom was wild enough to reach the beloved chef.

“Can’t believe you really, oh my God” Brian winced looking at the picture from the collective account “you can see the sweat everywhere!” He whined and Dowoon looked at the picture and chuckled as Jae laughed out loud, chasing the meat with some soda (they’d been careful enough to get the beer out of sight and leave only some wholesome lemonade on the table). Wonpil was too busy savouring his food to worry about his image and he agreed with Jae: the fans would most definitely not care. Sungjin didn’t care much either as he chugged on the beer that could now be displayed.

“Okay, okay” Jae said with a smile and he got his phone again, getting the front camera on and taking off his cap. His hair was damp and gross, and his face was glowing with sweat and kind of black around the chin area from the coal. Plus, he was wearing his actual glasses. He snorted “I look like shit, goddammit” Brian snorted and pursed his lips at him “but it’s fair. With or without the cap? Please be honest. It’ll be worse than yours.” He defended, and Brian chortled as he munched on some chips and looked round the table. Everyone shrugged “I’d say with, but, hm, put it sideways like” he got up from his chair and got the cap from Jae’s hand before shoving it down his head again. He turned the peak to the side a little and grinned “like this. Looks kind of cute.”

Jae chuckled. It did look kind of cute, Brian wasn’t lying to him and he wasn’t blind. He threw a peace sing and grinned. After making sure there was nothing on his teeth he snapped a derpy selca and posted it with the captcha,

 _It wouldn’t be fair for the rest of the gang to be only ones rocking the natural look so here. You’re welcome._ #naturalbeauty #cute #nofilter #DAY6Vacation

 

They were all pooped after all that work and just plopped right into bed after showering (the sheets smelled like mothballs but at least they were clean and, well, _mothless_ ). Jae turned on the notifs when he, Dowoon and Brian plopped on the king-sized bed.

(Dowoon in the middle because he was _the_ baby. Nobody questioned it when Brian said that should be how they’d go about it.

Ah, and Jae had been right about them fitting in the bed fine, of course.)

“Holy shit” Jae cackled wildly seeing the notes and noticing that the post had in fact reached Gordon Ramsay who had quote/replied with,

“8/10, very well-grilled meat and the seasoning appears to be on point. Congratulations @Jae_Day6

PS.: It’s not 10/10 because you hid the beer…”

“He praised it!” Jae yelled, and he heard his other bandmates laugh from the other room. He was sure they were also checking their phones “He roasted the” he was choking with laughed “the fact that we hid the beer, I c-can’t.” He was in full sleepy-English mode and only Brian was laughing, he translated it for a puzzled and half-asleep Dowoon who chuckled and turned to Brian’s side to finally sleep.

“He said ‘ _Congratulations_ ’.” Dowoon mumbled sleepily, his accent sounding cuter than ever “I bet the, the fans made jokes about it…”

They had of course, and Jae made sure to randomly pick a couple replies to the posts to quote with replies (which was always a mess especially when he was about to fall asleep) after replying Gordon Ramsay himself with,

_@GordonRamsay …….. that’s why you’re my mentor [praying hands emoji] Thank you. Saranghae, hyungnim [heart emoji]_

Then he picked a reply that said ‘be honest, you hid the beer’ and quoting it with,

_I have no clue what you mean. I’ve never heard of that beverage you speak of. We only drink Lemonade in this home (which btw is a kickass album 10/10 [100 emoji] [hearteyes emoji])_

He picked another that said ‘how come you’re all still handsome without makeup and sweaty. This isn’t fair :’(‘ and quoted it with,

_What can I say.mp3_

And he was dead tired, Dowoon had already fallen asleep and Brian was snorting at his replies before he picked one more among the load of them that praised them and told them to rest well and that they were glowing brighter than the stars with no make-up. ‘you guys look like a bunch of brothers at the kiddy table during the family meetings lmao still gorgeous though #noroast #justgrilledmeat’. Jae cackled at that and Brian cackled too when he saw the quoted tweet with the reply,

_The accuracy in this tweet is honestly a bit frightening._

“And that’s it” Jae muttered with a yawn, turning the notifs back off and putting his phone on the old bedside table “goodnight, Bri.”

“’night, hyung.” The mix of English with the honorific made Jae snort but not three minutes later he was out and dead to the world, off and gone to dreamland.

* * *

 

 

In the mountains, you see, especially when there are very little people around you, and the highways are more like _faraways_ because there are none in a 20km radius, you expect to be woken up by what? Chirping little birdies. The sound of the morning breeze. The pleasant rustling buzz of leaves rubbing against each other softly. What you most certainly don’t expect to be woken up by is panicked screaming or the very clear and very unnerving sound of something crashing followed by the mysterious sound of something liquid gushing out. It was around 5am. Brian jumped off the bed and almost fell because of the suddenness of the motion. Jae woke up too but remained where he was, frowning and looking at the back of his standing bandmate. Dowoon groaned in his sleep and woke up too.

“HELP ME, GOD! AH! I’M GONNA DIE!” It was Sungjin’s voice coming from the bathroom which was right behind the room Jae, Brian and Dowoon were sharing. They all got up at that call and when they pulled the door open they saw Wonpil coming out of the other bedroom looking like he’d not only heard but seen the Devil calling out his name.

They opened the door to the bathroom and saw Sungjin, or rather his flailing limbs, inside the bathtub, as the man himself was tangled in the shower curtains that he’d apparently ripped off their hooks while trying to break his fall from the toilet. The toilet, which was shattered on one side and had fallen pitifully to the other. The flush device had been half-ripped off the wall and was gushing water onto the floor and into the bathtub, where their unfortunate leader still was, caught in all his vulnerability and in nothing but a bigger version of his birth-suit.

(Not that there was something there they’d never seen anyway, so that was far from being the main issue there, really).

His boxer briefs were tragically hanging from one of his bare feet as he struggled to free himself from the flowery old shower curtains. The man was getting bathed (or _drowned_ ) by the flush water and his bandmates were too drowsy and too stunned by the scene to do something to help him for a solid 20 seconds. It was Brian who took the first step to go save Sungjin from his miserable condition. The others followed suit. They quickly unwrapped what was most definitely the saddest wrap in the history of wrapping.

Sungjin sat on the edge of the bathtub, breathing heavily. He looked like he was close to tears. Putting his boxers back on was not his top priority, so he didn’t. He looked up at his bandmates who looked both baffled and concerned.

(That was a good thing to see when you feel like you’ve been deprived of all human dignity.)

“Are, are you alright hyung?” Dowoon asked cautiously as Wonpil rushed back and got a pair of fresh boxers for Sungjin to put on. They were all getting their damn feet wet and Sungjin noticed. He had the soul in him to pull the flush tube into the bathtub so that the water wouldn’t flood the whole damn house. Sungjin put the boxers on and stood up minding his feet and looking at his bandmates’ feet to see if they weren’t stepping on shards. They weren’t. The shards were mostly near the wall.

The silence that settled was heavy and only broken by the gushing of the water that Sungjin tried to stop by turning off the source. The knob was calcified so there was nothing to be done but waste a bunch of water and pretend it wasn’t happening.

It stunk in there. The smell of shit coming from the hole left by the toilet was a thing of nightmares.

Dowoon finally broke that very weird silence by clearing his throat. His voice came out deep and hoarse from sleep anyway.

“Uh…it smells like shit in here but…” he scratched the back of his bedhead and he looked quite serious as he eyed the hole on the floor left by the fallen toilet “where’s, um, where’s the turd?”

It was both what he said and how he said it that prompted everyone to just start laughing out loud. Dowoon was the last to catch on but then he joined his older brothers in the laughing fit. Sungjin was crying from laughing too, as he sat back on the edge of the bathtub. Jae walked backwards out of the bathroom and his knees buckled, making him fall as he tried to keep himself upright. He was laughing so much he was wheezing and could barely breathe. Brian was bent over and quivering, also in tears, and Wonpil was cackling wildly, covering his mouth with both hands.

It took them a while to stop laughing. A _really_ long while. They went into the living room and sat on the ugly couches without bothering that they’d fall apart which was also a big mistake. One of the pieces of the couch was missing a foot and Brian was the other victim of the house. That only made the laughing session last longer, with him crying on the floor, his whole face bright red from the effort, and everyone just really laughing their hearts out.

“I didn’t” Sungjin, who’d earned the spot on the armchair, finally managed to utter, wiping his eyes “I didn’t even manage to, to take a fucking shit. It went back in.” That only made his friends laugh harder if that was even possible “A man, a man can’t even empty his damn bowels without, without it ending in” he banged his shaking laughy fist on the arm of the armchair “dishonour and misery!”

(They’d all die of suffocation at that rate, honestly. The laughing could probably be heard from the highway 20km away and it was probably scaring all the birds away.)

“What the hell, what on Earth happened how, how did that happen?” Jae managed between tears and Sungjin managed to calm down a little after breathing heavily “How did you, how could you destroy a bloody toilet like that!? You’re not that heavy!”

“Thankfully” Brian breathed still laughing but managing to regain his composure as well “it wasn’t bloody… I’m, I’m so glad you didn’t get hurt, hyung.”

“Word.” Jae pointed at him and nodded, getting most of his composure back at the prospect of Sungjin actually cutting himself out there and… good Lord, he didn’t even want to think about it. Hell to the fucking no.

“I kind of” Sungjin snorted “I was sleepy and, and like I was gonna take a shit, yeah?”

They snorted because deep down they all had the sense of humour of 7th graders and poop jokes were _La Bomba_.mp3, in Jae and his bandmates’ general opinion.

(It’s a classic, that song. No shame if you don’t know it though, but you’re missing out.

 _Un movimiento sexy_ waits for you though.

It’s time.

King Africa is waiting.)

“Okay, so, so you were gonna take a shit” Jae repeated inciting him to proceed his story “normal business.”

“Yeah” Sungjin cackled “well, normal business. So, I kind of, I was sleepy and, and I just dropped on the toilet and, and well” he paused there and opened his arms, they started laughing again because that was most definitely the climax of the story “I heard the crash and felt it give in under me and, uh, suddenly I was tangled in the curtains in the bathtub and, and then I screamed and you guys came and saved me. So” he breathed in heavily among his friends amusement “thank you for saving me from a very _shitty_ situation.”

That did it. Jae could barely breathe and Dowoon was laughing so hard he hit his head on the coffee table and started laughing harder. The third victim of the house.

“We’re leaving this house” Wonpil declared dramatically still chortling “it doesn’t want us here. It wasn’t a good idea, it wasn’t a good idea after all. I’m sorry, hyung…” Sungjin waved his guilty look away.

“That” Jae pointed a wheezy finger at him “is a very great idea. I, the barbecue yesterday? Awesome sauce.” He started “Got some A+ vids from it and, and Ramsay hyungnim’s approval.” His friends cackled, and he grinned “But we’re out of this damn place as soon as possible.”

“I agree.” Brian said and Wonpil sighed heavily. However, when he was about to speak they noticed something amazing. Something that happened everyday and everywhere but most people missed it every single day. It was seeping through the gross curtains, faintly, almost meekly. One of the reasons Sungjin had been talked into going there.

“We won’t miss that, we came here for it.” Brian said hopping off the floor as if he had spring and striding to the balcony, which honestly, was the only good thing about that house because you could see the mountains from there.

They saw the sun rising modestly but in all it’s golden glory from behind the shadowy mountains, shedding its light over them and that house and the forests around them. It was a little cold, that early in the morning, but they were together and huddled so it didn’t feel cold at all.

“I won’t even take a picture” Jae mumbled with a chuckle mindlessly holding Wonpil’s and Brian’s hands. Brian intertwined their fingers and then held Dowoon’s hand. Wonpil held Sungjin’s who unlike Brian was more into clutching hands “let’s remember it instead.” Jae said smiling at his boys. They chuckled, and the hands tightened.

That had been some weird two days, but they didn’t regret them. They would remember that sunrise.

* * *

 

 

In short, they decided to pack back up and go with Sungjin’s original and safe idea. They decided to find a nice little place by the coast and spend a couple days basking in the sun and swimming.

The sea at Incheon was lovely and the weather was agreeable too. A quick google search let them know of a wonderful place to pitch a couple tents near the beach and camp for three days. They just had to buy the tents, rent the space (already done) and pitch the tents. Sungjin assured them that he knew how to pitch tents, so it’d be alright. The only disagreeable part was them having to pay for all that with their own money but, well, at least they already had a bunch of food and there was a place to heat up water and food at that camping park. Also showers, which was lovely.

(And hopefully toilets that wouldn’t try to kill them, too.)

On the ride back, the subject of the murderous toilet was brought up again and ears were focused on Wonpil when he sighed and told them a story they weren’t prepared to listen after such a merry time but one they would be thankful for anyway.

His _grandfather_ (he hadn’t mentioned him at all before that moment) was kind of on the bigger side. Well, he had trouble sitting down because of that, and his legs and arm didn’t work very well from an accident he’d had a couple years back. For that reason, he had the stupid, very, _very_ dumb habit of whenever he needed to take a shit, he put his hand on the wall and just dropped on his very big and very heavy ass on top of the poor porcelain crapper.

“It never broke though.” Wonpil snorted mirthlessly “He was one lucky bastard.”

There was a short silence filled only the music coming from the radio. Something in the way Wonpil referred to his grandfather gave off a feeling that you’re not supposed to get when using the past tense referring to a person.

“Um… he’s… well…” Sungjin asked cautiously and Wonpil nodded and the feeling they’d all gotten was the right one.

“He’s been dead and gone for 10 years.” Wonpil declared and there wasn’t a single drop of pity in his tone. His friends remained quiet and he noticed that because then he smiled a little, almost apologetic “Ah… I’m sorry, um, you see…” he started a bit awkwardly “he had all those problems but, uh, he wasn’t a nice person… also…” he added and he clenched his jaw for a millisecond before speaking again “we’re not, he wasn’t really… um, he wasn’t my real grandfather… the real one died when my dad was born and, and grandma remarried this man and then had, they had my aunt… and, uh…” Wonpil was visibly getting angry as he spoke and Jae thought about telling him to just drop the subject but he also looked like he wanted to finish that, since he’d already started. Everyone was listening quietly “well, he was a _fucking_ asshole.” Wonpil finally blurted out and his fists were suddenly clenched over his knees. Jae’s heart was beating quickly and he felt his eyes get weirdly humid “He wasn’t, he wasn’t nice to my grandma, or my dad, or even, even his own daughter whom…” he clenched his jaw again and breathed heavily “whom he claimed to love more than… than himself… my auntie she…” Wonpil was so angry he was shaking “she’s alright but she, she never married anyone and, and she has many stuff wrong with” he banged his fist lightly on his own temple and they all got the message “it wasn’t that, that he abused her, like, he wasn’t that gross but, but my dad says he… he was mean with words and, and he was violent like” he snorted “he’d throw stuff around to frighten them all when he was angry.”

“Wonpilie…” Jae muttered and Wonpil looked at him. Jae had sat in the middle this time because Dowoon was feeling a bit lightheaded and the wind would do him good.

“I’m… I’m sorry I’m telling you this… I’ve never told it before…” Wonpil chuckled and he tried to smile but it didn’t reach his eyes “it’s just… I don’t want people, I _won’t let_ people feel pity for him because, because he was _horrible_ ” he spat that, and it was a sharp and stung because it was felt “he was horrible because he _wanted_ to be.” He gritted his teeth and his eyes suddenly filled with water when he felt Jae’s hand on his thigh “He blamed, he blamed everyone for what had happened to him and, and he was” he backtracked because he was stumbling on words “it was his own fault, everything, _everything_. His accident, my aunty, my grandma, my, my dad too but” he chuckled and the water welling up in his eyes slid down his cheeks, Jae reached his hands up to his face to wipe them for him with his trembling thumbs “but my dad, he wanted to protect them, my grandma and auntie so he, he tried to stay strong and not give in to, to the violence…” the words were coming out more choked up as Jae tried to comfort him “but he, he also needs things to, stay calm and, and all that… he was mean before the accident and he stayed mean after… but more, more self-righteous…” he sniffled and unclenched his fists to put his hands over Jae’s wrists. He didn’t push him away though, he looked at him and saw his own watery eyes reflected on his older brother’s, which comforted him a lot “well” he snorted “I’m glad that Sung-sungjin hyung didn’t get hurt on the toilet but… but I won’t pretend…”

“… that you wouldn’t have, have liked for that piece of shit to have cut, cut his entire ass and bled to death in that bathroom.” Jae finished his thought for him and he was smiling a little. Wonpil smiled back and Jae saw the gratitude in his eyes “Yeah, I feel.”

“Damn right, he should have!” Sungjin suddenly blurted out angrily and startled everyone by banging his fist on the honk of the mini-van “Oh shit, sorry, I wasn’t, I was gonna hit a bit higher” he chuckled mirthlessly. Brian chuckled too and finally glanced back at his bandmates. Aside from Jae, none of the others had motioned towards him or uttered a word as Wonpil shared that load of awful stuff about that side of his family “Thank you for telling us that, Wonpilie.” He sounded a lot like a support group leader and they all chuckled a little at that “Personally, I think the toilet should have killed him and not attempted to kill _me_. I did nothing wrong, did I?” He said with a mock-serious look on his face, turning to Brian who had taken shotgun again. Brian chortled.

“No, hyung, maybe the toilet was angry” he said with a chuckle and then he looked back at his bandmates, Jae was still holding Wonpil’s face between his hands “that man was disgusting” he said firmly “and it’s not a pity that people like that die.”

Wonpil smiled at him and the smile was starting to reach his eyes again and he looked like some heavy weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

“Your dad should have killed him himself.” Dowoon said and those crude words coming from that sweet mouth in that deep voice made even Jae shiver and look back at him in awe. Dowoon looked at Jae and Wonpil who were sitting beside him on the backseat and his eyes didn’t lie.

_He meant that._

“Now” Sungjin widened his eyes and clicked his tongue, clutching the wheel with a tense chuckle “ _now_ that was unexpected.”

“What?” Dowoon snorted and looked at his bandmates’ surprised looks “He should have. Make it look like an accident.” He added, and Brian gasped looking back in pure shock “It, it shouldn’t be hard since this asshole wasn’t moving well.” He declared, and everyone was quiet, Wonpil was looking at him almost with adoration “Push down a, a damn staircase or, or poison him slowly like, like in that one drama with IU noona, but with something that wouldn’t give it away.”

“That’s it” Jae said and finished wiping Wonpil’s tears which made him chuckle and turned to Dowoon “no more Criminal Minds or CSI for you, my good boy. Time for some wholesome dramas and stuff. American shows are hereby forbidden.”

Dowoon laughed and so did everyone else, even Wonpil.

(Jae only half-joking though. How much Dowoon had meant that had been quite shocking to him. Maybe they still had a long way into fully meeting one another, it seemed.)

* * *

 

 

When Day6 arrived at JYPE’s headquarters for work when their not-mountain vacation was done, rocking a beautiful golden tan, the staff looked suspiciously at them but nobody really commented. They met Jinyoung later that day getting cold coffee (a bunch of them, he was shoving them all in a plastic bag. Probably lost rock-paper-scissors and had to come down to get coffee for his whole team since he pulled out 7 cans of the stuff from the machine). Jinyoung looked at the rock band and greeted them with a smile before looking back at the machine and then back at them with a frown.

“Weren’t you guys, like” he looked confused “in the mountains?”

Day6 looked at one another and snorted a little. Jinyoung was waiting, looking especially at Wonpil, the member he got along with the best.

“To that house that had belonged to your grandma or something?” He asked again, trying to fish out the info before looking at the others seeing Wonpil cover his laughter “I saw your dumb tweets” he snorted, looking at Jae who pretended to be offended “and you were there. So” he looking at each one of their glowing faces and arms “why the hell are you tanned? Were you tanning in the mountains?”

“Well, it’s a long story” Wonpil said to his friend with a little chuckle, looking at his members who were trying not to laugh “but we decided that, uh, maybe the mountains weren’t the place for us so, we kind of took a detour and ended up at the beach.”

“Fucking knew it.” Jinyoung snorted, cussing under his breath which made them all chortle “You paid for that detour?”

“Sadly, yes.” Jae declared wistfully but then he smiled “But it was worth it, ya know? Look at these tans” he pointed proudly, opening his arms “you see them all the time in LA but in here” he sighed deeply because they’d had that convo, Day6 “they’ll just smear our faces with clear foundation and hide it all.” He said. Jinyoung snorted and shrugged. Well, there was no lie there.

“That’s not wrong.” He offered, and he shook his bag of coffee which tinkled loudly “Gotta go deliver some coffee to my guys. Hey” he said before leaving with a demanding smile, looking especially at Wonpil “I wanna see some cool pics.”

“I’ll send them to you.” Wonpil grinned back and Jinyoung looked at Jae.

“I want yours, too, if that wouldn’t be too much to ask.” He requested a little politer, since Jae was older, even though those things didn’t really work like that with Jae because, well, _LA “_ I bet they’re the best ones.”

Jae puffed his chest and nodded gravely.

“You shall get them.” He promised and Jinyoung snorted before nodding and getting nods back and leaving.

“The toilet thing” Sungjin started when Jinyoung (and anyone else but them, mind) was out of earshot “we’ll take that to the grave.”

They said no words, they just connected pinkies one at a time and stamped them to make it official.

It was a promise.

Well, in hindsight, despite how traumatic the event had been, it’d provided them with some quality bonding over many things. The sad things, that sometimes are not best kept hidden, and the sunrise. The sunrise which is really a miracle that happens everywhere. A miracle that happens everywhere and feels the best when you witness it with the right people.

* * *

 


End file.
